Step 1: Acquire Materials

Here are the required materials

1 1/2" schedule 40 iron pipe: Available at plumbing/hardware stores. Rather heavy. You can buy 10' lengths and then cut it yourself. Note that 1 1/2" pipe is not actually 1 1/2" in diameter. Its really closer to 1 7/8"!

Hacksaw/pipecutter/chopsaw: For cutting the pipe down

Couplers: You can buy these from mcmaster carr, they are used to build railings. They are sometimes called "speed rail" or "speedrail". Search the online mcmaster.com for "speedrail" and order the couplers you want. I got mine for free and they were all of the "4 outlet crossover" kind so I used only those but theres more suitable configurations.

Allen wrench: for opening & closing the couplers

Plastic pipe-end covers: get these at the place with the pipe, they protect your floor

1x8 wood panels for making the slats, and 2x4's for holding the slats together

Step 2: Prep

Measure your matress and couplers to determine how long your pipe pieces have to be. For my queensize matress and couplers i needed:

4 x 57" for the head and tail of the bed, including the headboard and tailboard

4 x 42" for the 4 legs

2 x 87" for the lengthwise pieces

Cut and deburr your pipe.

Step 3: Headboard

Slide the couplers on the pipe, and make up your headboard, it doesnt have to be in its finished shape but having a square will make it easier to assemble the whole thing. Use the allen wrench to tighten down the couplers

Step 4: Tailboard

Do the same for the tailboard

Step 5: Frame assembly

Have a friend or two help you hold up the head/tailboards while you slide the lengthwise pieces in. Now you should square the design, make sure it's level, and get it into a final configuration.

Step 6: Slats

Use the 1x8 wood to make slats that will form the support for your mattress. use three 2x4 pieces to hold the slats together, use woodscrews to hold the whole thing together

Because you used only a single type of pipe fitting, the "crossover." This has at least three advantages.

1. It simplifies the process of ordering the parts. No need to sit there and figure out that you need "x" number of this part and "y" number of that part and "z" number of that other part.

2. Having the pipes crossover makes the pipe length much less critical. You can even cut them slightly longer, then adjust them until they are the proper length for your mattress, allowing the ends to overhang slightly. Just so long as you cap them so that you don't get scraped by the raw ends.

3. If you decide to get a different size mattress one day, you can buy new pipe and reuse the exact same fittings.

I saw up in comments people asked how much ti did cost but seeing not reply to it I'm wondering how much it cost ya to make. I'm kind of a gym nut so I'm a little shy of 300 lbs so I'd need to put in middle support but just wondering about how much I'd be looking at spending

As long as you have a support in the middle, smaller pipe should be fine. The pipes on mine do bend slightly (the very middle sags about a half-inch when i sit right on top of it) but I have no supports in the middle. Just make sure you can get smaller fittings before you get the smaller pipe.

These fittings are hard to source, you can get them off the Internet but the minimum fittings come to about 130 bucks OUCH! I'm attempting to source something that is easy to get a hold of AND cheaper.

I ma looking to redo my old room. I thought the industrial feel produced by the Pipe Dream Bed was cool and am thinking about doing my room more industrially, but need to do it on a budget. I am looking for other projects that are similar to this (nightstands, dressers, etc.). If anyone knows any good tutorials, please tell me.

why isthe 2x4 attached on edge? wouldn't it be sturdier (as well as easier) to use a heavier screw into the "4"" side? pardon if this is a foolish question, I'm totally self-taught, very basic carpenter.

Well, only you can judge it from any other furniture or marks which are there. If you are conserned, extend the feet with say small and/or thin sheets of metal, wood, hard paper laminate, plastic, whatever.

Actually and oh, plastic caps should be enough - as long as this plastic is softer then the material your floors are made of. If you can find a material which scratches the plastic easily but not your floor, then you know the plastic caps are softer.

If not, you can put some tennis balls over the plastic caps. Or glue some fleece or heavy cloth onto the caps.

If you decide to follow my last suggestion - softer material like some 3mm or 6mm plastic or hardpaper should be a good idea. Then leave the plastic caps off and briefly use a hole cutter to cut a groove into the sheet into which the pipe will lock and thus stay centered.

And if the floors are really bad (i.e. made of hardpaper with a thin veneer), expect to replace them after a couple of years of normal use anyway.

no, in fact i'm starting to think it was myself who sounded a bit nasty, and i see i misread what you wrote... sorry.what i meant is, if you could find a bed for less than $100, that would be really awesome, and i'm sure i wouldn't be the only one who would love to know where!again, sorry! i really didn't mean it that way

This reminds me of a bed prop I built in community college theatre. I used some pieces of aluminum scaffolding (with big swivel wheels), steel pipe, and cheeseboro clamps (aka. "cheeseburger clamps") The bed was a trapezoid "forced perspective" shape, and raked -taller at the head, shorter at the foot. Plywood top, and stapled on foam padding, with dressings that could be changed very quickly. It was used it throughout a dream-themed dance concert. -we also use speedrail in theatre production, to put handrails on stage. so you may also check with your local theatre production rental/sales places for the hardware. - but they buy it from McMaster Carr, so it may just be cheaper direct.

just FYI!!!!... and schedule rating like sch 40, pertains to PVC/ABS... not METAL pipe.!!! it has to do with PSI rating for irrigation/sprinkler systems!!! If "EasyFit.com" sold IRON pipe as sch40, they jipped you :P

I just purchased couplings to fit the 1.5" ID schedule 40 Iron Pipe from EasyFit.com. The part number is EF40G-40 and they are $10.15 a piece. They ship out of Ohio. Hope this helps people... Also if you're in Washington, Oregon or Idaho, you can get 20' lengths of Schedule 40 1.5" ID Iron Pipe for $13.40 from HDFowler.com Building my 'modified' version of this using lots of LED lights to put a nice diffuse blue glow under the bed... I'll write up an instructable when I'm done.